Just watched this a few months back. I had read a lot about it via Robert Anton Wilson (my OTHER favorite writer). A wonderful bit of post-modernism. Criterion does an excellent job (as usual) with their DVD release.

Awesome. I recently saw The Stranger and adored that as well. It's so unfortunate Welles couldn't get anything done. That said, I hear The Other Side of the Wind is supposed to get some kind of release soonish.

Warren, aren't you working on something based around Orson Welles? My friend made mention of it but was vague.

We've argued about this in the past, but I still feel the movie is dated. Most of the time I don't feel that extra information really "spoils" the plot for the audience, but perhaps F for Fake is a strong example where it can. My suggestion for people who want to enjoy the movie for the first time is to mask all your clocks and don't do any research into the subject before hand.

Or maybe Wilson got my expectations too high . . . I'm not big fan of Welles in the first place.

Anyhow, my own favorite Welles movie is Touch of Evil, but I must admit to a terrible affection for Mr Arkadin, which is still recognizable as the work of a great artist even though it appears to have cost around 20p to make.

Futty: I was introduced to it via RAW as well and love his bit on that and also on the opening shot of TOUCH OF EVIL. I really do need to watch this again. Like you, after reading about (which was years ago), finally caught it via the Criterion edition and it did not disappoint.

I love Welles' version of The Trial. It's like a surreal nightmare. And for the record, Oja Kodar was smoking hot! I hope when I'm a fat old bastard that I am lucky enough to have a nice young lass like her to keep me company.

I happened across Mel Brook's History of the World Part 1 last night. Typical Brookian horseplay - but featuring an Orson Welles voiceover! Exceedingly disconcerting. I knew that in the last years of his life he'd do anything he was given - adverts for peas and Paul Masson wine, the voice of the killer planet in the first Transformers movie - but this was new to me.

I've been drinking, and all I see are that damn monkey, that filthy monkey, if you will, spastically jittering and Orsen Welles' godlike voice talking about a tiger. Do you not like us? We all try so hard to please you.

It really is a brilliant film, we had a course on the concepts of originality and fakery in the world of art, and this was shown during one of the classes... And his appearances in it are quintessential Welles - a larger than life figure, carefullt weaving the movie in front of our very eyes, with his theatrical tricks and grandiose speeches, so we don't notice the sleight-of-hand that he has in store for us in the final part of the film... If i remember correctly, this movie flopped, mostly becuse noone knew what to make of it. But a mockumentary with Picaso, Elmyr, Hughesand Oja reallu has it all...

(cheers for the original trailer, Warren, the prof. in our class played it for us before the film, but i haven't been able to find it since, not that i was looking very hard, though.)